Sonoran Desert Institute - Tempe, Arizona

Salvator Vialpando

Now i don't really leave reviews, but this needs to be known. SDI is very unprofessional when it comes to their students. the only thing they care about is money. most of the instructors don't care or do not know and tell you to look things up on google or youtube. like i should not have to pay a good amount of money for something i can find for free. all this school is a scam/ money laundering scheme to steal money from good people. you have a problem in your personal life and need to take time off classes well to darn bad. they won't care. Now not all staff are bad some of them are very nice and professional such as the main phone and Student aid department. hats off to them they are. great. the rest not so much like the bursar office. they are very rude .Me personally i feel on some hard times and couldn't pay for the course , and what did they do did they offer support ? nope i was harassed every dang day even while at work . Of them demanding money or i will be removed from class. i got removed from classes and they failed me. and removed me from my classes and the school. they messed up my darn GPA so bad i can't get into a another school at the moment. but told me they will send me to collections for 260 bucks. well jokes on them i'm not paying for an education that i never received and yes i have the money to pay off the rest of my tuition now but will i nope i will never give them a nother cent as long as i live . also i will be hiring an attorney for them ruining my GPA and will be requesting a refund for every thing i put into this place. I would give this place one star but like i said earlier they do have people who care about only 1% of the staff. if your using your GI bills or paying in cash i recommend you stay away from SDI

Alex B

They're solely focused on their gun program, you're an idiot if you take anything else. I'm the idiot who really tried and finished their drone program. I can't even start to talk about how disappointed I am or I'll get angry. I put in 100 percent, and I'm proud of my own efforts, but very disappointed in the system. But know this: no college, no education program will EVER fulfill the promises they make you. This can include pulling an entire class from your roster 2 days before you take it. They have zero incentive to make sure you're doing well after school and the condescending spoiled brat that manages student success will blindly mail you jobs and then belittle you about how "it's your choice what you do with this". Not really sure why you're a "school" if you can't teach anyone anything that is useful whatsoever. But hey, it's a cool place to spend thousands of dollars for absolutely nothing.

dirtroad renegade

didn't pay much attention to reviews, now I'm a few weeks in and wish i would have. so far it's been rewrite this in your own words, do a discussion board i.e."try to learn this from other people who are trying to learn this from you" the quiz's have question on them you don't ever read or talk about. or screen shots of a youtube video that don't Cleary show what is happening and you have to guess what is. its 95% reading magazine articles, or watching youtube videos. and guessing or doing internet searches to find answers they never gave you! then writing essays and trying not to copy anything even though there's only a few ways to say how a bullet leaves a gun. but i'm stuck with it! cause dropping out now, I would still have to pay 30%

Devon DeHaven

It's not terrible but it's also not great. Just expect that some instructors will give you a zero cause you missed one part of an assignment. (Even though you have literal picture evidence of doing everything). I am only in this school for free tools and a free rifle. (I have left over time on my GI Bill.) Everything in this school can be searched on YouTube and Google. You are better off working at a gun store for awhile and picking stuff up along the way. (Which is what I was doing before getting done with welding school.) I would not recommend this to someone that is putting their own dollar down or a new veteran. Use you GI Bill for a good real trade first then do this on the side if you have left over time. Some instructors truly work with you and give you the benefit of the doubt and understand that people have a full time job and a life. Others will take every graded assignment to the T. There is more writing than actual hands on work. So again you are better off just trying this stuff on your own time. It is just a piece of paper in the end.

Tom Myers

I have been an instructor with SDI for over 3 years. At first the online format seemed odd and was certainly different than anything I had experienced before. But the learning curve was short for as an instructor. I have met many many motivated young men and women that were students and juggling many balls. But they all had a desire to better themselves as well as a deep seated patriotism. Most faculty, staff, and students are veterans and American pride runs deep.

I have decided that this will be my “retired” job when I sell my business. A way to stay engaged and give back some of the decades of experience I’ve acquired.

Chris Johnson

I chose this school with the intentions of becoming a gunsmith. I am three weeks from graduating and I have absolutely no idea what I am doing. It’s not that I haven’t been paying attention, if that was the case I would not have passed all of my courses with 90’s. It’s simply because you can’t learn how to be a gunsmith from reading a book and watching YouTube videos. The instructors do not help, they do not respond to emails. It’s very expensive, expect $17k for your associates. The sole reason I chose this school over other gunsmith academies, was the AR build course. I was expecting to learn how to assemble an AR, I was expecting a kit to be mailed out to me, I was expecting instructors to help me with my project. I am three weeks from completing this school and I have not received my build kit, they tell me that the instructor will guide me through it after graduation. Why would I expect help after I graduate if I can’t even get help while enrolled? I can tell you about a firearm, I can tell you how it goes boom, but I can’t physically apply anything learned in this school to a trade.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY (or G.I. Bill)

Jeremy Michael

A joke of a school. Instructors copy and paste feedback for forums and assignments. Instructors don't give any instruction at all, just grade assignments that you are left alone to read directly out of the book. Tools included in the course are cheapest on the market. If you want a piece of paper that says you have a degree this is the place for you. Do not waste your GI Bill! No one will hire someone based off of the material taught by this school. If a grad is hired it is because of knowledge gained from another source.

William Atkinson

Save your time and money. I just finished 1 semester and everything I have learned can be found on Google our YouTube. With the exception of your labs you will spend most of your time doing essays and being graded like your taking English composition. Not a very user friendly system either, when I asked about why I wasn't getting a heads up on when my classes start (and why my calendar is never updated) I get informed that there is a second portal to download the list. Most of the instructors I have dealt with are alright but if I knew what this school was going to be like before I started I would have never signed up.